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© 2009 Spar & Bernsteins 'Law link' Blog
Today, Spar & Bernstein tax attorney Sean Chi take his turn on the hot seat with the famous Inside the Actors Studio-Bernard Pivot questionnaire:
What is your favorite word?
Yes.
What is your least favorite word?
No.
What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
The right music at the right time. Or bags of money.
What turns you off?
Butterflies. I’m not the only one.
What is your favorite curse word?
Golly-gosh-darn-it.
What sound or noise do you love?
A dog barking.
What sound or noise do you hate?
Metal on metal.
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Sport columnist or novelist.
What profession would you not like to do?
Fox News reporter.
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
All dogs do go to heaven.
The police are out in force. Tons of people are clustering around City Hall Park. And the music is blaring, the Rocky theme and “Get ready, ’cause here I come.”
Right outside our window, activists organized by the AFL-CIO are getting ready to rally about financial regullatory reform, calling for “Wall Street accountability, the creation of good jobs now, and an end to predatory lending practices.”
Organizers say they expect some 10,000 protesters to gather in City Hall Park, where AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, who’s been all over the news shows these days, and others will address the crowd.
WASHINGTON, DC – A document entitled “Proposed conceptual immigration” is circulating on Capitol Hill, detailing the main points of future immigration bill.
The 26-page document obtained by La Opinion, is backed by Sens. Charles Schumer ( D-NY ), Robert Menendez ( D-NJ ) and Harry Reid ( D-NV ). The first point of the proposal is entitled “secure the border before taking any action to change the status of people living illegally in the United States.”
“We need clear benchmarks to ensure the border and ultimately deal effectively with the millions of illegal immigrants in the country. These must be met before taking action to adjust the status of persons who are illegally in the country, “he says.
“This must include: increasing the number of border patrols, increasing the ICE agents to combat trafficking, ICE inspectors enhance, extend the number of ICE officials for fraud detection, increasing staff at ports of entry, improve technology and infrastructure to assist border patrol, increasing resources to indict traffickers and increase resources for immigration courts, which expedite the removal of individuals who are illegally in the country, “the document continues.
It also mentions that after the implementation of the proposal will create a bipartisan commission will be tasked with investigating the state of security in the northern and southern borders and provide recommendations for additional resources, technology and infrastructure that must be implemented to ensure operational control complete the boundary within a year.
Democrats have insisted on finding Republican support, which was thwarted this week when Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) publicly withdrew their support for a proposal this year.
Other Republicans who have been contacted by Schumer have argued that it can support anything until I see something “in writing”, a factor which until now had not been provided.
In this regard, sources on Capitol Hill Democrats, described the document as an effort to get Republican support for a bill.
“Although it is supported only by Democrats, is a bipartisan effort, which aims to make it difficult for Republicans to say no. Its purpose is to find the necessary support, “said Frank Sharry, executive director of Voice Americas to La Opinion.
The document also specifies that after 18 months, the Social Security Administration will begin to issue biometric identification cards. “Among other features this tool would have features like the ability to check an individual locally without requiring that each employee accessing the biometric database,” among others.
Five years after the date of implementation of the proposed ID card would serve as the only acceptable document for employment verification.
In the area of probate, the document proposes a “prospective legal status” ( LPI ), as mentioned by the Opinion / Impremedia in March, “that will allow undocumented immigrants and those who are benefited by the TPS , travel and work in the USA. After eight years, would be given residence.
The proposal has a position in favor of unions, authorizing the creation of a commission in the area of future flow of workers.
Source: Immigration Policy Center
Washington, D.C. – Supporters of Arizona’s harsh new immigration law claim that it is, in part, a crime-fighting measure. However, people like Republican State Senator Russell Pearce of Mesa, the bill’s author, overlook two salient points: crime rates have already been falling in Arizona for years despite the presence of unauthorized immigrants, and a century’s worth of research has demonstrated that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes or be behind bars than the native-born.
Furthermore, while much has been made about kidnappings in Arizona, law-enforcement officials indicate that most of these involve drug and human smugglers, as well as smuggled immigrants themselves – not the general population of the state.
The Immigration Policy Center releases a fact sheet which shows the decrease in Arizona crime rates over time. The fact sheet also indicates that states with high immigration have the lowest crime rates and that unauthorized immigration is not associated with higher crime rates.
Highlights include:
* According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, violent crimes in Arizona fell from 512 per 100,000 people in 2005 to 447 per 100,000 people in 2008, the last year for which data is available.
* According to a 2008 report from the conservative Americas Majority Foundation, crime rates are lowest in states with the highest immigration growth rates, such as Arizona. From 1999 to 2006, the total crime rate declined 13.6 percent in the 19 highest-immigration states (including Arizona), compared to a 7.1 percent decline in the other 32 states.
* Although the unauthorized immigrant population doubled to about 12 million from 1994 to 2004, data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics indicates that the violent crime rate in the United States declined by 35.1 percent during this time and the property crime rate fell by
25.0 percent.
Combating crime related to human smuggling requires more trust between immigrants and the police, not less. Yet the undermining of trust between police and the community is precisely what Arizona’s new law accomplishes.
In the final analysis, immigration policy is not an effective means of addressing crime because the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals.
“It NOT the American way.”
For months, we’ve pleaded, begged with controversial fillmaker Michael Moore to do a documentary on immigration. And last night, on CNN’s Larry King Live, Moore finally admitted to Larry that he’s indeed considered it. “I’ve thought a lot about it…because we’re all immigrants,” he said.
Hip hip hooray!
Is Arizona making a run for this title of ignobility: The Most Racist State in the U.S.?
It’s a question that definitely needs to be asked now, with the passing of SB1070 on top of its already sordid history.
I mean, take a look:
1) Arizona was one of the last states to observe Martin Luther King Day, to where the National Football League, which had an increasing percentage of African American players, voted to yank 1993′s Super Bowl XXVII from Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe and awarded it instead to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. (Faced with a boycott, Arizona voters finally approved the holiday by ballot in 1992, and on March 23, 1993, the NFL awarded the 1996 Super Bowl XXX to Tempe.)
2) Arizona emboldens a crusty, creepy, crackpot like Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who proclaims himself America’s Toughest Sheriff – a guy who revels in dressing up inmates in pink underwear, endorses such things as tent cities for prisoners in the dead of desert summers, and thinks progress in law enforcement is going back to the days of chain gangs. Not to mention his absolute obsession with rounding up – with total impunity – anyone suspected of being an illegal immigrant, to where seemingly anyone darker than himself is a reasonable target.
3) Arizona Governor Jan Brewer last week signs into law the anti-immigrant SB1070, which only further breaks an egregiously broken immigration system. It encourages, among other ugly things, racial profiling as well as a show-me-your-papers-or-else police state where immigrants unable to produce documents showing they are allowed to be in the U.S. could be arrested, jailed for up to six months and fined $2,500.
Way to go, Arizona!
You’re well on your way to winning a title no state in the union should ever want to win.
So, we wonder: What’s next on the agenda?
Waterboarding anyone with an accent?
Huh?
Shame on you.
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